Core Items

Frost Cape contributes to Skud’s impressive disruption ability, adding a slow to his arsenal. He will completely rule the flow of battle while also able to take more punishment from the enemy team through the health and armor the item provides.

Alternatively, players may want to go all in on Skud’s offensive potential and grab Omni Arms instead. He is already a powerhouse when it comes to crowd control, so losing one slow won’t be the biggest tragedy in the world. The jump from 150 extra damage to a 100% attack damage boost is huge, though, allowing the brawler to one-hit squishier foes.

Optional Items

Offensive Item Choices

If you’re having trouble against tanky enemies that build up armor, you can opt for a Spear of Longinus. This item will help you shred through your enemy’s armor and go toe to toe with them with the added Armor bonus of the item.

Fenrir’s Tooth is a good option when your team is already rather durable and in need of more damage. It provides the most amount of attack damage in the game, and if that weren’t enough, amplifies damage further when the enemy’s health is low. This applies to damage that doesn’t scale with attack damage as well, such as the health based damage dealt by Wild Beast Fury.

Defensive Items Choices

As he will constantly find himself in the middle of fights, Shield of the Lost can be a good choice for Skud. It offers an impressive amount of armor and health to make the wearer exceptionally durable. More importantly, however, it provides a debuffing aura that slows the attack of all nearby enemies. This will not only give Skud an easier time dealing with them himself, but help out all of his allies as well.

Rankbreaker is a great way to rip through enemy armor, especially early game. High amounts of armor pierce will let Skud do nearly true damage to squishier foes, providing the chance to snowball early and turn into a damaging monster. The movement speed that the item provides outside of battle will additionally help Skud move between lanes and reeach battles that started without his presence.

Another powerful way to slow down enemies, Hyoga’s Edge will debuff enemies Skud attacks without regard to if he had just used an ability. In addition, it speeds up the wielder when they attack as well as provide them with an array of defensive stats. Hyoga’s Edge isn’t necessarily an alternative to Frost Cape either, the two slowing passive abilities stacking.

As someone who will be diving into the middle of fights to rough up opponents, Mantle of Ra can be very valuable to Skud. It empowers his attack strength while also toughening his skin to physical damage. In addition, it provides a damaging aura that burns away the health of enemies stuck next to the brawler.

Mail of Pain is a fantastic way to stave off physical enemies, particularly enemy marksmen. It provides health and armor along with a passive that reflects a portion of damage he receives back to the attacker.

While almost purely defensive in nature, Medallion of Troy should only be skipped if the enemy team lacks a mage. It is a great value when it comes to stats, offering not only survival but some cooldown reduction as well. The magic shield it offers is icing on the cake, forcing mages to commit to an attack before Skud even begins to feel their damage.

Not only does Amulet of Longevity offer tremendous amounts of survivability through health, it synergizes well with Skud’s passive. Having a higher health pool will naturally increase the amount he heals whenever it procs, but the Amulet additionally amplifies healing the wearer receives to increase it further.

Sample Item Builds

This build leans a bit more into Skud’s offensive side while still maintaining enough survivability to survive enemy harassment. Rankbreaker, Omni Arms, and Fenrir’s Tooth allow Skud to be rather aggressive in fights, amplifying his damage to rather respectable levels. Even the more defensive items like Medallion of Troy and Mail of Pain add a bit of aggressive edge through the cooldown reduction and damage reflection they offer respectively

Here we build up Skud’s survivability with a number of items that debuff enemies. Frost Cape and Hyoga’s Edge will slow any he attacks to a crawl, leaving them open to Skud’s allies. They will have little choice of fighting back either, Shield of the Lost weakening their offensive potential.

This build doubles down on Skud’s defensive potential, outfitting him purely to absorb enemy fire as he disrupts enemies. While certainly able to be built as to deal quite a bit of damage, he is perfectly able to contribute to his team when playing more as a tank. Every item buffs up his defenses in some way, be it through armor, magic defense, or health. Between Frost Cape, Medallion of Troy, and The Aegis, Skud is able to hit max cooldown speed. As a result, he will be able to throw out abilities very regularly to displace enemies and set up kills for his team.

Send us your builds!

Have a build you want to share? Think you have a build that’s better than what we have listed? Put it in the comments, along with any (optional) explanations for how it works. If we like it, we’ll include it in our sample builds section – just let us know what name you want us to refer you as. For example: “ALG Rest’s Super Duper Support Build.” Feel free to include any social media accounts you want us to link to.

7 Comments

I use a really aggressive build with no defensive items so i can basically 2 shot low health characters by using my charged attack for that one punch that takes off like 60-90 of a weak character and maybe 33-50 on tanks. Very good initiator and changing the tables by killing the ranged heroes in 2 shots. But no survivability…

Chain Lightning: Every 4 seconds, the next normal attack triggers a chain lightning that deals 102 (+7 per level) magic damage. Each normal attack also carries Life Steal and reduces cooldown by 1 second on hit.

Requires Punish talent to purchase. Once 2nd or 3rd tier jungling equipment is purchased, the Punish talent will become Frostbite. Frostbite deals damage to enemy heroes and reduces their movement speed.

Rock Shield: 3 seconds after activation, gain a shield equal to 30% of the damage taken within those 3 seconds (+12% of Max HP). The shield lasts for 3 seconds. The player’s damage output is reduced by 70% for 3 seconds after gaining the shield. Cooldown: 75 seconds

Devotion: Gain a stack of Dedication Buff every 30 seconds. Stacks up to 2 times. If a unit dies within 800 units, consume a stack of Dedication Buff to grant the nearest ally 15 extra gold and 40 experience.

Wage: Gain 5 gold and experience every 3 seconds if your gold or experience is the lowest on the team.
Distinction: Gain 30% more gold and experience after a kill or assist
Wind Shield (active): Provide nearby hero with the lowest HP a (800 + Hero Level x 80) point shield and 30% movement speed boost for 3 seconds. 45 second cooldown

Wage: Gain 5 gold and experience every 3 seconds if your gold or experience is the lowest on the team.
Distinction: Gain 30% more gold and experience after a kill or assist.
Eye of the Fiend (active): Gain vision of the nearest enemy for 4 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds.

Devotion: Gain a stack of Devotion Buff every 30 seconds. Stacks up to 2 times. If a unit dies within 800 units, consume a stack of Devotion and grant the nearest ally 15 extra gold and 40 experience.
Tidal Force: You and nearby friendly heroes (within 600 units) receive 20 (+1 per level) HP and 10 (+1 per 2 levels) mana per second.

Purification (active): Immediately remove any control effects from a nearby allied hero, and restore 160 + (level x 30) HP and increase their movement speed by 30% for 2 second. The affected hero is immune to slows for the next 2 seconds. 60 second cooldown.

Fighting Spirit: Increase damage dealt by 10%
Nirvana: Resurrects wearer 2 seconds after death with 2000 + (hero level * 100) HP. This effect has a 150 second cooldown and can only be triggered twice in the same match.